Waters named CEO at I and Love and You

BOULDER — Dan Waters, who had led an international chocolate brand, has been named CEO at Boulder-based pet-food manufacturer NatPets LLC, which operates under the I and Love and You trade name.

Waters will lead both I and Love and You and the company’s recently acquired cat-food brand, Made by Nacho. He succeeds Michael Meyer, who was appointed chairman of the board.

Waters joins the company from Hu, a natural-chocolate brand in the United States and United Kingdom where he served as CEO. He previously led Enjoy Life Foods and was chief marketing officer at Bel Brands.

“The I and Love and You team saw the clean-label pet food shift coming years before the rest of the category did,” Waters said in a prepared statement. “The health-conscious pet owner is as careful about what’s in their pet’s bowl as they are about their own plate. They want real, high-quality ingredients. That’s especially true in cat (food), where premium options still haven’t caught up to how much pet parents love their cats — a category that already makes up more than half of our combined business. With I and Love and You and Made by Nacho, we are providing cat parents nationwide the options and variety they’ve been missing.”

Founded in 2010, I and Love and You acquired Made by Nacho this year, bringing onboard Made by Nacho co-founder and celebrity Bobby Flay as chief culinary officer.

“Dan has spent his career turning brands into category leaders, from scaling Babybel and The Laughing Cow globally at Bel Brands to growing Enjoy Life into one of the leading names in allergen-free food, to leading Hu’s next stage of growth,” Cara Hoy, managing director at I Catterton, which holds a majority stake in I and Love and You, said in a prepared statement. “He knows how to drive growth and profitability without losing what makes a brand beloved. His experience and track record make him the right person to lead this next phase of growth.”

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